Contribute to Icesus

Build a place.
Become part of its story.

A road through the pines. An inn with a secret. A ruined hall that a party will remember. Your ideas can become places people explore in Icesus, a living, evolving world.

Our browser tool, Icesus Creator, helps you turn your writing into rooms, characters and adventures. You bring the imagination; the world already has players, history and people to build alongside.

Say hello in #creator. You are welcome to join the conversation while you learn the game.

Your worldbuilding workbench

Meet Icesus Creator

Lay out an area on a visual map, connect its rooms, and write what players discover. Add monsters, NPCs, items, weapons and armour, then shape their descriptions and behaviour in the editor.

Writing fields and settings sit alongside the game code they control, so you can see how your area works. You can begin with the visual controls and learn more as you build.

Icesus Creator showing connected rooms on the Frosthollow Road area map, with the selected room's exits and settings in an inspector.
See how your area fits together. Arrange rooms, follow their connections and open a room to work on its details. View full-size map screenshot.

Screenshots show the Creator tool with an example area in progress.

Open Icesus Creator · Sign in with your game character. Building access follows approval of your area plan.

From an idea to an adventure

Design, write, play, refine.

Start with a small place that has a reason to exist. A good first area gives you room to learn the whole craft, from its first description to the way it plays.

  1. Talk it through and make a plan

    Share your idea in #creator. Describe the place, who it is for, where it belongs, who lives there and roughly how big it will be. Submit an area plan in Creator for a wizard to review before building begins.

  2. Map the place and write its life

    With your plan approved and workspace open, connect rooms on the map. Write the sights, sounds and details that reward exploration. Add inhabitants, dialogue, encounters and equipment, using the existing game systems to bring them to life.

  3. Walk through your own adventure

    Save your work, run the checks and use Playtest to experience the area in the game. Follow every exit, try the conversations and encounters, and check the rewards. Revise what feels confusing or unfinished, then test it again.

  4. Get feedback and prepare it for the world

    Record your playtest results and submit the finished area for wizard review. Work through feedback on writing, design and balance. Approved content can then join Icesus for other players to discover.

A shared world, still being written

Your story becomes somewhere people go.

Icesus has been growing since 1995. Its geography, lore and player history give your ideas a place to take root. A path you design can become someone's favourite route; a character you write can become part of a player's memories.

You build alongside a community, with established combat, equipment and character systems to draw on. As players explore and the world evolves, there is always more to learn, improve and imagine together.

Explore the craft of building for Icesus

Come and meet us

Your first step is into the community.

Join our Discord and find #creator. Introduce yourself, ask about the tool and tell us what you would love to build. You do not need a finished proposal to say hello.

Start playing and reach player level 25. Explore, read, try the systems and get a feel for what makes an area enjoyable. Bring good writing skills and a creative mind, then talk with us about your first area plan.

Creator lets you contribute areas as a player, with wizards reviewing the work. Becoming a wizard is a separate path for broader building and development responsibilities; you can read about it on the volunteering page.

New to text adventures? Our guide to playing a MUD will help you find your feet. Welcome to Icesus.

There are other ways to help, too.

You can contribute while you are still learning the game. Help another player, improve a wiki page, or share a clear bug report or accessibility issue. Every useful contribution helps the community.

Interested in programming? Wizards also extend the game in LPC. See how to become a wizard and our building guides.